


you can be damn sure we'll avenge it

by sunbean72



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, post avengers four i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 07:50:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14588406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbean72/pseuds/sunbean72
Summary: tony stark takes the infinity gauntlet and closes his hand





	you can be damn sure we'll avenge it

The fact that he wouldn't live to see the world renewed didn't bother him, much. Nebula had warned him that attempting to weild the gauntlet or the stones would be a death sentence, but-- 

He felt each beat of his heart 

as he put the gauntlet on

He was closer now than he'd ever been, closer than he'd ever been

to making 

everything

right

But each beat brought him closer to death, his life's blood gushing from his critically injured body but he had to hold on, he was _so close--_

He closed his hand.

 

...

The soft chime of a small, silver bell on the door sounded as someone left the diner. A large, looming shadow, but of no concern now, no concern, he was just leaving.

"What'll it be, honey?" An incredibly tall woman sidled up to the table, looking at him expectantly.Tony didn't respond, utterly bewildered. "First timer? Take your time," the waitress said kindly.

Tony looked around, his brain completely short-circuiting. He tried to grasp, tried to understand the abrupt changes. He knew that Thanos had used the reality stone to trick them before, and this was, this had to be, some kind of bizarre illusion. But Thanos didn't have the gauntlet. _He_ did, so what was--

Had he died?

There was a suspicious and concerning lack of pain. That couldn't be right. He flexed his left hand, it felt strange, then he ran his hands over his body, over his chest where the critical wound he had received had been, where moments ago it had been gushing out his life's blood, had moments ago ebbed out his sacred strength, a severed artery. He looked up at the... the waitress. 

She smiled warmly. "On the house."

She pulled out a small notebook from her apron. She clicked her pen and looked at him with patient expectation. "Like I said, you can take your time. There's no hurry. There never is, here."

"What... what is this place?" Though he was seated by large windows, all was utter blackness outside, no light no stars-- not even darkness, just nothingness he could not gaze into for more than a few moments. The little diner, immaculately clean, only held five booths. The waitress seemed to be the only other person, _being_ there, though there were small sounds and shadows of movement behind a swinging door that looked to lead to a kitchen. There was an odd feeling in the place, as if it were very late in the night or early in the morning, as if they were utterly alone in the universe, as if it had been deserted here for a long time before they were both there at that moment. It was not cold, it was not warm, he was not hurt, nor tired, nor hungry. It was not peaceful or unpeaceful, either; it was. "What is this?" He asked again, beginning to feel afraid.

"This is _here_ ," she said simply. "This is where you _are_. There really is no hurry, but you've only got one shot at it. No sending it back to the kitchen if it doesn't suit you! It can be a little intimidating. Not for my last customer," she added with an eye roll. "He knew what he wanted, all right. But he didn't think it through. Made a real mess in the kitchen, I can tell you that much! Are you in the mood for something in particular?"

 _Confused_ could not begin to capture his present state of mind, but he automatically picked up the single laminated sheet in front of him-- the menu. It seemed to him complete gibberish, but his mind picked out words-- peace, restoration, jealousy, power, immortality. Even _Pepper_ was on there, _Morgan Stark, Peter Parker._ Once he started seeing names, there were hundreds of them, all people he knew, all people intimately connected to him. _Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, James Barnes, James Rhodes, Happy Hogan..._ The list went on.

"I don't understand."

"Here are some things you can order, and over here are the prices," she offered patiently. Tony couldn't get a good look at her. She seemed tall, just very tall. If he were to stand beside her, it felt as if she would tower a good two feet over him. But it didn't seem odd or freakish, she didn't seem strange. He couldn't pick out the color of her hair, it seemed to change in the warm light of the bulbs, but it shined like dim starlight, difficult to see straight on but only visible from the corner of his eye. He caught her eye-- they looked at him not unkindly, but a dark, amethyst purple, almost dark enough to be mistaken for brown. He couldn't get a firm grasp of the shape of her; he thought she seemed strong. She ran a finger over the words. "You tell me what you want, and I'll show you the cost here. Take your time."

Tony was silent a long time, looking over the menu. The waitress didn't so much as shift on her feet or offer any other sign that she minded waiting. "I want everything to be made right," he said finally.

"You'll have to be specific, sugar." Endless patience. "The cook doesn't read minds you know."

"The... Half the universe. That was destroyed. I want them--" pain came now, in his chest, in his throat, grief like a suffocation. "I want them back. And the people who died, Gamora, and... those who died opposing Thanos. Can we get them back?"

"Sugar, you can have anything you want. There's a price for it all though."

"What's it cost me?" She nodded at the menu.

He looked down and the menu was the vast expanses of space and time. "You've got to be real specific, hon." 

He understood what was happening-- it was showing him a reality with no Thanos. If he'd been stopped sooner, before he went on his vendetta against life, before Titan was destroyed. Then in rushed forward, and it should have been too much for Tony to comprehend. Trillions of lives and destinies altered by Thanos and his armies not killing them, all the populations he'd decimated back, continuing their lives. Wars that had never been sprung up and faded in an instant, lives created and lost, an _alternate reality._

He caught a glimpse of a familiar face, Loki, and as soon as he focused his attention he could see in more particular detail how Loki's life would be altered had there been no Other, no Thanos pulling the strings. The man clearly took a left turn when he let go at the rainbow bridge, but he was never given the scepter, he never went after the Tesseract, and there were never any Avengers formed. He could see himself; he continues to fight arms dealers, he never becomes the hero in the Battle for New York, he builds his company, he innovates but without urgency. He eventually teams up with Steve to fight Hydra. It looks like they may even be friends; they track the Winter Soldier together, but Bucky is killed after the Winter Soldier kills several SHIELD agents. There's a rise and fall of Hydra, the rise and fall of AIM. The future there spins off in dizzying speed, but he can see he loses Pepper. He never has Peter Parker. Loki becomes a despotic king and dictator, causing his own brand of mischief and chaos, grasping at and failing to fully grasp redemption. Billions of lives changed and altered, and Tony--

"I don't know if I can be responsible for that," he said, trembling. The people who rebuilt their world after Thanos had begun anew, building relationships and families that never existed in the altered timeline. 

The waitress shifted now, and a look of rebuke crossed her face. "You knew what it was when you picked it up. You have to decide; the time for deciding responsibility is over." She softened her stance slightly. "It takes a strength of will that some find difficult. You must find it within you, Stark, for forward is oblivion or triumph, but wielding the stones has a cost, either way."

Tony swallowed. "We stop him on Titan," he murmured to the menu. He can't be responsible for _all_ of Thanos' actions, however deplorable he found them, however much he opposed them, he couldn't, couldn't bear the responsibility of them. 

He sees what would have happened if Peter Quill hadn't, in grief and rage Tony felt all too familiar with, punched the nearly subdued Thanos in the face and they had succeeded in removing the gauntlet. Thanos fought out of Mantis' control, and when Tony reached to use the gauntlet to fight the titan, Quill had screamed that it would kill him if he tried. Tony hesitated; he wasn't ready then, there was still a refiners fire to go through, he wasn't ready, and he had no choice but to try and it killed him, and Thanos picked up the gauntlet and in his anger obliterated all the unworthy humanity--

"Strange saw," Tony said, stunned, looking up at her. She smiled politely. He knew what she would say. There's a cost.

"What if the stones and the gauntlet had never existed?" He asked.

She tapped her lip with her pen in contemplation. She tilted her head, her lips tight. "What will be done cannot be undone." He looked at the menu. It was utterly blank-- the void and darkness bereft of even the memory of light. The Infinity Stones were integral to the existence of the universe. He stifled a laugh of hysteria. It really _would_ solve every problem.

"Is there anything where everyone is happy?" He murmured, and she shrugged. There appeared on the menu some kind of Eden-like paradise, throughout the universe. The Soul stone gave everyone unlimited life, the power stone health without disease, the time stone access to any time that you could ask for, the space stone any place you desired, any reality at your fingertips, and the mind stone took away all jealousy, all anger, all hatred. What remained was no paradise, however. It was a tepid bath devoid of love, kindness, compassion, freedom. It felt far more disturbing and sickened him more than the darkness of the abyss. 

He wiped away a sheen of sweat. The waitress looked at him in concern. He forced himself to speak. "Just restore those lost when he used the gauntlet."

The menu showed him-- a world he could save but not keep. A world that wouldn't belong to him. The waitress leaned down. "That's a good choice. Kind of expensive, but..."

He looked again. He saw Pepper, with a curly haired little boy with bright blue eyes. He saw Peter-- he goes to MIT. He saves the world. He sees Steve. Steve isn't the same, after this. After Tony dies. An ache begins in his chest and then grows, yawning and wide, and he yearns to have hope, to participate in a better future.

Tony sighed. "Can I phone a friend?"

She looks at him with eyebrows raised in question. "Stephen Strange. He seemed like... I just met him, but he seemed... capable. I don't... I'm not sure what to do. I don't know."

"I'm sorry Tony," she said gently. "This is your choice. Take your--"

"Time. I know." And he did. He really did. The ache in his chest seemed too much to bear. "Could I have a moment? Then I'll be ready to order."

"Sure thing."

...

"Get my feet daddy!" Tony laughed and scooped the small four-year-old up in his arms and Pepper gamely reached for Morgan's hands. The two of them swung the child through the air. 

"One! Two! Thhrreeee!!!" In a rapture of giggles and laughter, they swung the toddler high enough that Tony could catch him. Breathless and grinning, the little boy looked at his father with shining eyes.

"Again!"

"You'll lose your lunch you walnut," Pepper laughed, ruffling Morgan's curls. "Almost time to go, buddy. Momma will go grab us an ice cream cone, okay? Then time to go home, Uncle Rhodey is expecting us."

"Ice cream??! Okay!!" 

Tony sat on the warm grass with his son in his arms, clasping him to his heart. Morgan didn't mind; he wrapped his arms around Tony's neck, pressing his face against Tony's neck. "Love you, buddy."

"I love you daddy! You're the best!" Tony squeezed him so tightly he risked the toddler squirming away, but he didn't. He let himself be held a moment, rare for him. There was no doubt that while Morgan adored his mother, he was a daddy's boy. He followed his father everywhere, and Tony indulged his every curiosity, his every question. He helped him make a model of DUM-E out of legos. Tony wasn't disappointed that so far, Morgan seemed perfectly ordinary. He wasn't interested in making his first circuit board; he was interested in bugs. He loved dinosaurs and minecraft and his robot brothers and Friday. He loved pancakes and hated yogurt ("it's squishy!" he'd protest) and he loved

he loved

he loved his dad.

And Tony loved him.

On a visceral, cellular, physiological level. The purest form of magic he'd ever experienced. He loved him. He wanted to give him everything, but using the gauntlet to restore the universe meant that he wouldn't be there in person to do it. 

Pepper was pregnant, despite how she teased him before... everything. Morgan was real and he deserved a whole and beautiful world. 

After he restored them, there would be a golden age. Humanity facing its own loss would band together. It wouldn't be perfect, there would be difficulties, but there would be a few generations where things were... good. Like after 9/11 but on a global and much more lasting scale, and with none of the vitriol aimed at fellow human beings. Morgan would grow up in the best possible world. 

Pepper came back and they ate their ice creams together. She held his hand, and he held Morgan in his lap. They bathed in the gentle warm sunlight and were together

together

together.

He took his time.

...

 _Look, what you just saw was your legacy Stark!_ Tony looked up, a familiar face above him. _Your life's work. Is this how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark?_

"It sure is," he murmured, letting go so he could keep it safe, keep them safe. 

...

The waitress smiled, writing down his order with care and precision. 

Outside a light began like dawn. Tony Stark smiled. He was happy.

**Author's Note:**

> For those who felt the narrative was too ambiguous: the "house" saved tony's life from a mortal wound so he could finish what he started, but the "price" of using the gauntlet to bring back the dissolved people and give Morgan a better world was Tony's life (as mortal humans are too fragile to use the gauntlet without paying with their life-- Thanos only barely survived, if you notice his entire left side and hand are severely injured after he dissolves everyone). It is super sad :( but tony does get one perfect day in the sunlight
> 
> I personally believe tony will live, that Morgan wasn't a dream but a glimpse of a future reality, so this was me venting my spleen about the choices and consequences of using the gauntlet and what dr. strange saw when he knew tony had to live.


End file.
